Australia captain Sam Kerr out of Women’s World Cup opener and Nigeria clash
The Chelsea striker has sustained a calf injury.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Australia captain Sam Kerr will sit out the opening two matches of her home Women’s World Cup with a calf injury, her national federation has announced.
The Chelsea striker is Australia’s all-time goalscorer of either gender with 63 goals across 121 caps, but she will be forced to watch Thursday’s opener against the Republic of Ireland from the bench after sustaining the injury during a training session on Wednesday.
Australia next face Nigeria on July 27 and will hope Kerr is fit enough to start their final group stage match on July 31 against Olympic champions Canada, the highest FIFA-ranked Group B nation.
A Matildas tweet read: “Sam Kerr is unavailable tonight after she picked up a calf injury at training on MD-1.
“Sam will be unavailable for the next two matches, with the Matildas medical team to reassess her following our second group-stage match.”
Football Writers’ Association women’s footballer of the year Kerr, 29, took to Instagram to express her disappointment in a post that read: “Unfortunately I sustained a calf injury yesterday in training.
“I wanted to share this with everyone so there is no distraction from us doing what we came here to achieve.
“Of course I would have loved to have been out there tonight but I can’t wait to be a part of this amazing journey which starts now.”